There's a sequence from the first quarter of Game 3 of the WNBA Finals, in which the Atlanta Dream walloped the Golden State Valkyries by a score of 97-71, that would still be grinding my gears if I were a Valks fan. Angel Reese, fresh off her Game 2 masterpiece, started Game 3 aggressively, going right to the rim. She scored the first two points of the game on a nifty duck-in, and then tried to drive on Kiah Stokes on two straight possessions. Stokes blocked her both times, and then blocked a Jordin Canada layup. And then, with just over five minutes left in the quarter, Stokes was subbed out of the game.

One of the most noticeable subplots of these Finals is what Reese is able to do when Stokes is and is not matched up with her. When defended by Stokes, she has sometimes struggled to reliably get off clean shots; against every other big on the Valks' roster, she has enjoyed a feast of layups and fouls. Things were no different on Wednesday night: As soon as Aminata Gueye subbed in for Stokes in the first quarter, Reese went straight at her for a bucket and a foul. When Stokes was subbed out again with 7:23 left in the second quarter, Reese got right back to work by hitting a three in Gueye's face and then bumping her out of the way for another layup.

The Valkyries and Dream are stylistically similar in a number of meaningful ways, but one area where they diverge is their depth. Golden State has ridden its 10-player rotation to the Finals by believing in every player's ability to contribute, and by prioritizing meaningful amounts of in-game rest for the starters. The Dream, meanwhile, are happy to share minutes among just seven players. A deep roster full of talented players is the kind of thing that can help carry a team through the regular season and a long playoff run, but a dogmatic commitment to using a big rotation can make it harder to navigate that other all-important principle of playoff basketball: matchups.

Anyone who has watched even a half of this series would conclude that a wise course of action for the Valkyries would be to match Reese's minutes with Stokes's as much as possible. When you have one of the league's best defensive bigs on your roster, and one who seems particularly capable of matching up with the other team's star, it's best to lean on that advantage as much as possible. Stokes played 26 minutes to Reese's 34 on Wednesday, and was a -7. Her backup, Gueye, was -14 in 11 minutes.

Of course it is too simplistic to say that the reason the Valkyries lost this game is because Gueye played too much, or that Natalie Nakase gave too many minutes to too many players. It was in fact the bench that managed to keep Golden State in the game into the second half. Janelle Salaun returned from the wilderness to score 13 points in 12 minutes, and Tip Hayes poured in 14 points in her typically feisty 24 minutes. It was the starters who ultimately let the Valkyries down in this one: Kayla Thornton took and missed one shot, Veronica Burton was 1-of-7, and Gabby Williams had another ghastly shooting night, going 5-of-18 for 15 points.

A deep roster is supposed to make these bad shooting nights easier to weather, but keeping someone like Burton or Williams screwed to the bench in favor of a hotter hand is much easier to do in theory than in practice. Salaun played just four minutes in the second half after scoring 11 points in eight first-half minutes. It's easy to imagine roster depth as a quick fix for all sorts of problems, but you still need your star players to show up. When they don't, what previously looked like a beautiful, whirring basketball machine can start to sputter and puke smoke. Suddenly there are too many buttons to push, and none of them seem to be doing anything.

The Dream, meanwhile, have a much smaller and meaner machine. Another place where these two teams diverge is in where they draw their energy from. The Valkyries are understood to be Nakase's team; their style of play is a reflection of her intensity and "basketball sicko" mindset. The Dream are unequivocally Angel Reese's team, and what has been revealed in these last two games is how valuable it is for a team to have their spirit embodied by someone who is actually on the court rather than on the sideline. While the Valkyries have looked increasingly meek and rudderless—their signature defensive ferocity was nowhere to be found in Game 3—the Dream have rallied behind Reese's increasingly bombastic performance. She is pulling triple duty as her team's best player, best shit-talker, and most dedicated hype woman. Seemingly nobody on the Dream is allowed to make a play without receiving a chest-bump and stream of celebratory expletives from Reese, and nobody on the Valkyries is safe from her derision. "I want you scared as shit. The goals is for you to be scared," is how Reese described her practice of clapping at her opponents when guarding them to the NBC crew after Game 3.

If the Valkyries are meant to show us how far team work, belief, and an egalitarian spirit can take a team, then the Dream are here to remind us of much darker but equally valid principle: weakness is there to be preyed upon. Reese has spent the last two games belittling and humiliating Gueye every minute she is on the court. She called her a "bum ass" in Game 2, and repeatedly stared her down and shouted, "You can't guard me" at her in Game 3. And then, as Reese watched from the bench during garbage time, Madina Okot got a bucket and a foul against Gueye. This was enough to bring Reese and several of her teammates back to their feet. She made the "too small" gesture and shouted, "You're a bum!" several times directly at Gueye.

A team that trusts and plays for each other can go a long way. So can one that sees a bully at work and decides it wants to get in on the action, too.